Language News

This page keeps you up to date with the latest language news from around the West Midlands and beyond. Please contact us if you have a language news story or culture-related news item you would like us to publicise on this page.

Employers rank languages most desirable skill after IT - 01 March 2010

A recent survey conducted for CILT, the National Centre for Languages, has revealed that employers rank foreign language skills as second only to IT when it comes to finding the right candidate.

Kathryn Board, Chief Executive of CILT, said: “In the current economic climate, it’s more important than ever to give young Britons the skills they need to build a successful career for themselves."

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'Bienvenue à Rugby!' - Students encourage French visitors to their town - 24 February 2010

Students in Rugby tested their language, tourism and business skills recently when they were set the task of promoting their town to overseas visitors.

The sixty students from Rugby High School, Avon Valley School and Bilton School listened to presentations by two local business people who use languages in their work before putting their language skills into practise to create posters promoting Rugby as a desirable destination for French athletes taking part in the 2012 Olympic Games.

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Airport manager inspires students to reach for skies - 15 February 2010

Year 9 students at Aston Manor School in Birmingham, boosted their future employability when they took part in a languages workshop in conjunction with Birmingham International Airport.

The workshop was designed to show students the importance of languages in the workplace and how such skills are used within the tourism industry to attract overseas visitors.

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Languages mean business for Shrewsbury students - 11 February 2010

Year 9 students at the Priory School in Shrewsbury made languages their business recently when they were visited by an export consultant.

Becky Stark, Director of Stark Export Focus Limited, an export consultancy service, visited the school to kick off a series of workshops aimed at helping students to understand the importance of languages within the workplace and to encourage them to keep up these skills to increase their future employability.

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Birmingham business puts languages into perspective for Kings Norton Girls - 05 February 2010

Students from Kings Norton Girls’ School put their futures’ into perspective recently when they took part in a workshop to raise awareness of the importance of language skills.

One hundred and fifty Year 9 girls listened avidly to business speaker Helene Adlard, from Wragge and Co’s Birmingham office, as she explained how languages have benefitted her career.

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PMD Magnetics inspires international workforce of tomorrow - 18 January 2010

Matthew Finch from Stratford-based PMD Magnetics became the latest recruit to the Business Language Champions programme when he ran a workshop in Atherstone to encourage youngsters to continue with language learning. Seventy-seven students from Queen Elizabeth School and Sports College listened to Matthew's experience of using languages at work before creating posters in French, German and Spanish to promote the Jetflash USB memory stick currently sold by PMD Magnetics.

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New funding opportunity to help schools engage with businesses - 18 January 2010

The LinkedUp Scheme, in collaboration with CILT the National Centre for Languages, is looking for schools, colleges and businesses who would like to work together to benefit learners, develop new approaches to language teaching and create employer links.

Each project receives £3,000, which can pay for teachers' time, travel expenses, pupil resources and employers' time. The next two deadlines for applications are 15 February and 23 April 2010 so if you would like to find out more please contact Kathy Wickstead on 01858 575864 or visit the Links into Languages website.

New European Funded project helps West Midlands SMEs internationalise - 11 January 2010

A £6 million pound project has been recently launched in the West Midlands to provide SME's with funding and advice on how to develop their companies internationally and sell to new overseas markets.

West Midlands (SME) Internationalisation is an ERDF funded project which can provide grants to eligible SME’s, to support a range of internationalisation activities including developing an international trade strategy, skills development and attending overseas trade fairs and exhibitions.

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